Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Equality, Justice, Blessing

God has always intended to rule the whole earth. On the one hand, God is fully in control of all things. God is capable of ‘making’ anything happen. God gave mankind free will. At times we make poor decisions and select bad choices. Nations could still function today by following God’s ways. In it how our country began and those ideals of equality, justice, and freedom remain the basis of our governing principles and laws. In general, peace and order are still the norms of the day.

Yet in places here and in pockets there, many are not ‘living the American dream’. In places, there is no sense of hope. There is no clear vision of how life could be any better than ‘this’. There is not a path out of poverty and oppression. Systems are established that continue dependence and reliance on the system itself instead of teaching people a new or different way. An example of this would be the high recidivism rates in our jails and prisons. People complete their sentence and the system wishes them well but quietly wonders when they’ll be back. In too many systems we offer a ‘hand out’ but do not offer a ‘hand up’. It is simply easier this way.

As people of God, we are called to stand against and to work to right wrongs, to fix injustices, and to help end oppression. We are called to speak truth to those in power to bring voice to those without power. Some of us are called to be in places of power, to help change come from within. And sometimes we work with individuals within systems to walk alongside people who are in poverty or homelessness or prison. Change is possible – both for the individual and for the systems. May we each, as followers of a Jesus who loved all without question and who saw all as worthy, follow that lead as we work for equality and justice and blessing for all people.